Untitled Cardcaptor Project: Pilot
by Person With Many Aliases
Summary: Throwing up the Pilot episode for a CCS story, just for the heck of it. In the far future, the more things change, the more they stay the same...


_It was the tallest tower. A spire that pierced through the clouds and the lightning until the very tip finally came through the last layers, and reigned over empty air._

_It was quiet tonight for the two of them, standing in the distance looking at this tallest tower. The other buildings between them shone brightly, giant blades of light searing through the air in every direction. Floating ads chirruping their products and themes._

_A shower of paper fluttered through the night in front of them. There were so many, so much time, so many cards, such a big job._

_This could take a while._

_The floating one said something._

_Is that so? Time to go to work._

_Miniscule wings emerged on his ankles. He turned about, back facing the open air. A deft flip twirled the rod in his hand one final time, before he back flipped into the air, no safety net, no pool, no plan on how to move next. Just feel it, you're strong enough now._

_I couldn't help but smile at myself for the dive. Ten points out of Ten_.

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A banging on the front door roused him.

"KLOU! KLOU REEVE! GET OUT OF BED! YOUR RENT'S DUE!"

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**Person With Many Aliases Presents:**

"**Untitled Cardcaptor Sakura Project": Pilot**

**Cardcaptor Sakura series property of CLAMP**

**Original characters property of Author Person With Many Aliases**

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**Klou Reeve and the Beginning of the Rest Of His Life**

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_Five o'clock. That's the usual time, right?_

_Now dear readers of this most excellent and inopportune tale of the single most traumatizing event of my life, let's get a few things out first, huh?_

_The year's close to 2752. Man's really advanced quite a bit, though I'm not proud to say it was only after much dilly-dallying. Essentially, the human race finally lost the game of chicken with the environment, with near fatal results. It was only through a joint effort that we even managed to save ourselves…_

Amidst the pounding on the front door, the lithe form fell out of bed and onto the cold floor. A yawn, and he stared out into the morning sky, which still looked like nighttime.

_In fact, the world's always been in a perpetual state of near-night and cloudiness. It's the legacy we have to inherit. I don't mind, though. I wasn't born in an era where there was a sun, so I don't miss anything. Still, this way, the world is never asleep. We never know whether it's day or not, so we work as much as we can, and then we sleep. There is no day or night here, just what hour out of twenty-four you decided to call your own._

_Oh yes, I live in Tomoeda now, in Far East District. A lot of people still like to call it Japan, but for formalities sake, when the governments of the world decided to unify into one global system, they gave a formal district designation to each part of the world. China, and half of Russia is East District, and as I said, this is Far East District._

_Really, the world's one big city now._

"Klou Reeve! I know you're in there! Open up the door!" The landlord continued to threaten.

"Coming…coming."

The sliding door opened slightly, letting a single midnight-blue eye peer through the slit, creased slightly by the hallways lamps outside.

"Yes, Sanyo-san? Can I help you?" Klou attempted to say, given his still awkward Japanese.

"You haven't paid in three weeks! I don't care how poor you are! I better find something soon, or you better start finding a homeless shelter!"

"I'm sorry, Sanyo-san… I've got some money saved up… I'm already not paying the electricity bills… if you just give me a few more days…"

"Fine! Three more days! And that's just because you helped me fix up that water pipe last month! But that's final!"

"Thank you Sanyo-san…"

The blue eye closed the door on Sanyo with much else.

_I think I still haven't formally introduced myself. My name is Klou Reeve. I'm a junior at Tomoeda's old but still very good high school. My favorite subjects are History and Literature. My least favorite subject is mathematics. I've moved to study abroad away from my parents since three years ago, so I live by myself. I make ends meet between school tuition, food, and rent by modeling for my friend._

_And stealing. I'll get on that later._

The boy gave another yawn and rubbed the night's grime from his eyes before stumbling through the darkness of his flat to pluck up a pair of squared glasses to see through. Now he could see the right side of his flat, which was mainly the kitchen, and the empty space on the left that was occupied by bed, desk, and bookshelf. Not that the bookshelf could really do anything, though, as miniatures stacks of volumes were everywhere on the floors and surfaces of Klou's little slice of the world. A portion of the far wall was replaced with a balcony and clear glass sliding door that both overlooked the skyscrapers of Tomoeda, though the neon of hanging ads blocked much of it off. Intermediating between the kitchen and the living area was a round table. Klou moved towards it, picking through the various articles to find a box of long matches. A strike, and Klou held it to a glass tube.

The gas lamp awoke, forcing the artificial darkness away with warmth, playing shadows over Klou's apathetic face and shoulder-long black hair that seemed to tint blue in certain lights. Another gas lamp, and yet another started to burn with Klou's care, till the whole apartment was lighted. Afterwards, the boy moved towards the kitchen area, where a miniature gas stove sat atop the eternally dormant electric stove that was provided by the apartment complex.

_You noticed, right? I don't believe in electricity. Ironic, right? Given I live in a world that uses more of it than ever the light a world with no sun? Still, I get enough of staring at blue and white and neon pinks and reds and LCDs just being outside or looking outside my window. So I don't use electricity when I'm at home._

A package of instant noodles fell into the boiling water, signifying the beginning of breakfast.

A scarfed down meal later, and Klou pulled open a book to count the money inside.

"Deducting meals today… depositing today's assumed profit… still short by… hmm… time to go."

A rubber band pulled Klou's black hair into an underplayed tail that hid itself under the collar of his school uniform. On top of that and this school bag, Klou also retrieved an archaic cellular phone and MP3 player. Over his uniform, Klou also slipped into a blue jumpsuit and a pair of heavy boots. Thick gloves were pulled over his hands.

Kou didn't bother going through the front door. He had faster ways of heading to school.

"I'm off now." He called behind him to his house as he opened the balcony door. Outside, the wind blew down a light drizzle, flecking his glasses with little beads. The was sky cloud and dark, and the world continued on with its light show, while people walked about Tomoeda's endless heights through wide walkways about the city, and de-grav vehicles that trafficked their contents through the air. Between the clouds, little signs of lightning were seen hitting the towers interspersed throughout the city, providing pure power to run the area.

_Raining again?_

Klou stretched back and forwards, easing muscles and cracking joints audibly.

"Yosh… all systems go…"

Klou clambered onto the railing of his balcony and stepped onto the supports of hanging advertisement for a bar, slowly edging himself forward until he reached the edge.

Clicking a few times on his MP3 player, Klou had the beat of the world move to Love Foolosophy.

Do or Die.

No, Klou couldn't die from something like this.

With that, the junior leapt into the blank air of Tomoeda, wind biting into his face as his jump suit and school bag on his back flapped in the air resistance.

"Three… two… one…"

His hand shot out onto a support cabling that ran between two buildings. Instantly the elastic wire had reversed Klou's descent until, his release had him shooting towards the air at the complex under construction ahead.

_I'm a minute late. This landing might be rough._

His trajectory sent him towards one particular deep crimson metal gantry on the side of the building. Klou managed to land askew on the slightly too far below him elevator that was heading down the side of the construction site. It led him to nearly tumble off the side of the falling metal box, but he managed to grip the edge just in time, letting him come face-to-metal grating-to-face with two construction workers. The larger one smiled.

"Hello Ryo…" Klou greeted.

"Yo! Reeve! That was a close one!"

"You… think so?"

The younger one of the two workers complained, "Ryo! What's this kid doing here! This could be considered trespassing!"

"Ah, don't worry about it Tsujidou! He's catches a ride with us every day to go to school. Everybody on the site's at least familiar with his face. Don't worry, he's cool, newbie."

"But… he's trespassing…" Tsujidou continued to weakly protest.

"Oh, come on! Give the kid a bit of mercy, huh? He's living by himself!"

Klou blinked through his glasses, "Did I… tell you that?"

"Sure!"

"I must have forgotten… it's my stop… good day…" The boy mumbled, before hauling himself up the side of the red elevator, and quickly hopping off onto an outdoor arcade area that was quickly passing by. Amidst the crowds, few noticed the sudden appearance of the boy jumping off a construction elevator.

Pacing through the masses, Klou finally emerged in front of a small grocer. The elderly lady behind the counter and under a shawl smiled.

"You came."

"Good morning… evening… granny."

The small store was comfortable to Klou as well. It wasn't large with too much space, but the very opposite, as the boy slide sideways between boxes of fruits at his feet, placards of bent cardboard and black markers announcing prices per kilogram, bulbs above glowing yellow over everything. He plucked out some wrapped rice balls.

"I'll take these, granny…"

"So little, Klou! You're a growing boy!"

"I can… only pay little…" Klou managed to admit, looking away.

"Nonsense!" Granny ducked under her counter for a second to produce a larger paper-wrapped article, "Take this. You're payment is coming to my store so often and being so nice to me, since I know you don't like to take things free."

"Thank you, granny…" Klou agreed, placing his purchases inside his bag and giving a farewell to her before jumping over another balcony.

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Tomoeda High was in the middle of opening its gates as Klou landed on a building top that supported the various complexes the school was made up off. Like everything else, the school used to be based on the ground in the older days, but as the population increased, and the space in the world lessened, the school thus built upwards. Now it was a skyscraper among others, though access always was through the top, where the replica of the original school buildings lay.

"Klou-kun! You came! I thought you were going to be laaaaate!"

The boy in questioned remained motionless as Tom Saiga jumped onto his back somehow, despite being taller than the former, his ethnicity calling him away from East, West or North Districts with his dark skin and his large afro.

_I must make some notes about my school days. I have to say I don't have friends here, apart from Tom Saiga. I think it happens to be from the way I live. I tend to distance myself from people, save Tom, who latches himself onto me. The other boys here think I'm a show off the way I land at school, and that I'm arrogant because I have higher scores than others._

"Tom…I always arrive the moment school opens… I've never been late…"

"Still, still! You know how much I care for you, Klou-kun!"

_I also have suspicions that Tom is gay, but that is not my concern. After all, he makes his way through life on his own, like me, though he's managed to find his independent work. As a fashion artist._

"Oh! Right! Klou-kun, I have a new line up of designs I wanna try! You'll look stunning as an aristocrat! You'll come, right?"

I model for him. I haven't yet worn anything that might compromise my privacy yet, but I still find it strange that I model. But it's my few sources of income.

"Yes, Tom… I'll come… You're my employer anyways…"

"Klou-kun! It hurts for me to know you only consider me as that! I'm also your friend! That's why I ask you instead of making you, I care about what you want!"

"Oh…"

As Klou opened the door to his homeroom, he was met with a few squeals from female particulars.

_Yes. I happen to be attractive to the girls in my school for some reason. I'm not sure why. Maybe it the exotic flair of my foreign nationality (British-Japanese), coupled 'mysterious' distance, along with my looks._

_I always disliked how Tom requested me have my hair long for the photo shoots. I don't feel masculine at all._

"Klou Reeve! You're out of school uniform!" The homeroom teacher roared once more as he entered, hoping to catch the 'delinquent' once and for all.

"Am I? Give me a second to change…" Klou mumbled as he reached for the zipper at the neck of his jumpsuit.

The boys gulped and blushed, the girls squealed as the zipper went down.

A sigh of relief or whine of dissatisfactions as Klou revealed his wearing the school uniform underneath.

_That's how my school starts everyday._

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Klou flipped off the wall in the gym, landing on the mat perfectly, before going at it again and again.

Every day after school, the Parkour 'club' invaded the gym to practice its near illicit display of running and jumping from point A to point B. The 'club' wasn't really a club officially sanctioned by the school, but at the same time, their members never got in the way. They were just a bunch of guys that happened to be running and jumping in the gym, that was all.

It still made Klou just another of the delinquents with them. He didn't mind. He hadn't gotten in trouble from it yet, and that was all that mattered.

Jumping over and over in practice, Klou let his mind wander.

_It's always been the same dream for the past few weeks. What does it mean?_

_Tom always had good advice, what would he say?_

Klou thought too much. As he spun upside down, his angling began to come apart, and he found himself crashing to a heap.

"Ow…"

People about him snickered as he picked himself up idly to sit on the ground, legs splayed about him.

"Klou's actually pretty athletic, you know?

"Yeah?"

"Yeah… his heads been up in the clouds these days recently."

"Yeah?"

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On the top of an apartment building, there was a very solid, though extremely jury-rigged, construction of spare steel scaffolds, wood frame windows, corrugated sheets, and other feats. It wasn't much, but it was Tom Saiga's home and studio combined.

"Oh Klou-kun! You look absolutely GORGEOUS!" Tom preened as he stood behind the camera, "Klou Reeve! You're the prince of Tomoeda!"

"No…no thanks… I just do this for the money…" Klou mumbled under his top hat, as he shifted his cane uncomfortably.

As the camera flashed for Klou in his various poses.

_I don't know where to quite put myself. I don't have my parents with me, I don't make much money, I travel to school in a unique manner, I have fairly high grades. The boys don't like me since they figure I'm an elitist show off, the teachers tend to think I'm a trouble kid, the girls… they just like to stare at me, no more like piece of work in a zoo._

_I just go in day in and day out doing this, making money, making grades, being a pal to Tom._

_But where am I going with any of this?_

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The jump suit was back on, the backpack secured. Klou grappled a cable and flew downwards, ever downwards. He flew off and bounced off the roof of one of many floating buses and continued down, flipping between metal bars that were secured between two skyscrapers, dancing between the poles, until he reached a particular out of the way patio in Tomoeda. Here was a small pawnshop that always trusted Klou with what he brought.

Mainly because the police hadn't found them yet.

Klou moved through the partition and found himself in a poorly lit room, the pale bulb reflecting only a single counter that stretched across the side of a room, while shelves contained all sorts of loaned goods that never found its way back to its owner again.

"Ah! Klou! Nice of you to drop by! Anything today?" A voice called from the back.

_This is what I meant earlier when I said I stole. I don't know how quite to put it. It was always easier for me, especially when I learned to jump the way I do. Every once in a while I just happen to know where some artifact is, and I steal it from private collectors. I just know where it is… it just sticks out to me. They're pretty valuable, but it's never enough to last for long. I don't really like to steal…but I can't make money in many other ways. It's a miracle Tom makes me model for him. I'm grateful for that._

"I have this statue I found… how much is it?" Klou asked quietly, unearthing a squatting, earthy brown thing.

The balding man in overalls and thick glasses came out and plucked up the statue. Peering at it, the pawnbroker whistled.

"Nice, boy. This is pretty. I better put this in the back before I get back to you."

Klou looked about the shelves for a while until the man returned. The familiar ring of the cash register followed, along with a small stack of bills. Klou counted, and made a noise at the base of his neck.

"Um… This is a good amount… but I need to pay my rent…"

"It's not my problem! I'm only giving you what you deserve! Come back when you have something else!"

"…Yes, sir…"

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Klou ambled back through his balcony, the world ever as dark as ever.

"I'm back…" He mumbled to the dark room as he set down his back and began firing up the gas lamps again.

_I'm still short… I only have a few days…I need to find something to steal soon… or I'll get kicked out…_

Klou began pouring through his texts, studying, writing, scanning.

_But I never know the next time I happen to know where something is…_

Klou sucked up his noodles over the gas stove, pondering.

_I don't want to get kicked out…_

_But…_

_Wait…_

_There…a book… it's… valuable… a family that just moved here…I might be able to pay off my rent with this…yosh…systems go…_

Klou Reeve wasted no time, pulling his headphones over his head to start playing Moonlight Sonata, while he leapt off the balcony, upwards, upwards.

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_Whoever it is that owns this book, they're very rich._

That was Klou's initial thoughts as he whirled about a vertical flagpole and held fast to it, his sense pointing him to a house on a roof an apartment complex. The place was made to be a stylized recreation of the classical homes in East District, with its vibrant red clay walls, its wooden materials, its sloping tile roofs, the garden outside, with stone paths and a small pond with golden fish idly swimming by.

_They're very rich… they won't mind losing one book over the next…_

Klou jumped closer, his instincts telling him there was no security in the garden itself. Nobody was expecting a man to actually land in a garden that towered stories high in Tomoeda. He was right, he thumped onto the grass with nary a sound, and no sound of alarm was returned.

_Please let this be just Easy and not Too Easy…_

Klou ran from one point of cover to the next, until he reached the house itself. While a lot of it was made of wood, the doors were made of secure stuff, and the place had windows rather than gaps in the walls.

Still, the doors were unlocked. Nobody expected somebody to come from the garden.

_Please let this be Easy and not Too Easy…_

Something whispered to Klou that the book was in a storeroom that was connected to the living room he was outside of. He crept through.

Eventually, he eased the door to the small storage open. Among the snap together metal shelves, there lined rows of boxes and books pertaining to memories the owners of this household didn't want to lose.

There it was. It seemed to stick out to Klou like a shining light. Maybe it was a shining light, but that wasn't the point. As Klou got closer, the light seemed to wane off until a thick pink hardcover was just asking for Klou to pick it out. He obliged.

On the backside, there was an image of a man with wings in front of some circular design. On the front cover, a lion enchained. Klou's interest was piqued at the title.

_The…Sakura…? The Sakura? That's… what it's called? Such an… awkward name…_

The book appeared to be latched together, Klou groaned in his head.

_I might damage it if I force the book open, but I don't want to endanger myself looking for a key-_

The latch clicked open suddenly. Klou blinked.

Easy or Too Easy? Well, the problem is solved, time to go-

The book was begging to Klou to open it. The thief's hand was just trembling to feel the majesty of pulling the cover away to see its contents. Klou decided to humor whatever was speaking to him and he obliged. To his surprise, the book wasn't really a book, but a concealed case for…

_Cards…? What… are these?_

He pulled up the first pink panel, and looked it over. It wasn't your average playing card, obviously, and it had a tarot quality to it… but it didn't look like any thing he'd ever seen before.

Klou fixed his lens and read the card aloud, "The Windy…? Strange…"

That was when all hell broke loose.

The floor underneath Klou began to shine to the point it nearly blinded the thief, a blast of air suddenly came out of nowhere, threatening to slam Klou into the ceiling, as he barely held himself to the ground with his weight, while his covered his eyes with one arm.

Cards smacked into his body as the gusts picked up the paper and sent it flying everywhere, and the miniature gales were enough to set the shelves rattling.

_What… what's happening! Is this security? Have I been found?_

The shelves fell onto Klou, burying him and the book under memories of long ago.

"Ow…"

_No time for ow…I have to get out…NO!_

Klou barely managed to shout aloud in shock as he looked at the pink book in his hands. The container was completely empty. The cards must have fallen out during that strange wind. The only one he had was the one called Windy that he still held in his other hand. Klou hissed and for a few seconds futilely tried to sweep through the mess on the ground, hoping to find the misplaced cards. After all, they couldn't have gone far.

"Is somebody there?" A girl's voice wavered frightfully outside the door; the accent sounding of Chinese mangled Japanese.

_I have to go. Maybe the book itself might be worth something. This was a horrible night._

Klou burst free of the piles of books and sheets on top of him and rushed out the door. There was girl in the dark, but he couldn't see clearly since the lights weren't turned on yet. Klou simply rushed her, and she fell backwards in a scream while the boy rushed out into the garden, Windy and Sakura in one arm, while he leapt over one of the red walls and fell into the chaos of Tomoeda.

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"What… the heck… was that?" Klou panted to himself in disbelief as he tumbled back into his apartment, throwing the book and card onto the table.

"Too weird… too weird…" The boy continued to whine as he slumped into a seat, his head lolling back over the top of the table.

The surprises weren't over yet, though. The book itself decided to pick an admirable time to start glowing. Klou jerked his head up in surprise as he saw the volume starting to grow some glowing light on the top of its cover. At this Klou decided it was high time to give a noise of surprise as he fell back over his seat, staring in shock at what was happening. Eventually the golden light coalesced into a floating form that slowly gained stubby legs and arms, a minute tail, a thick head…

"HELLO THERE! Wow! I didn't think some guy like you could wake me up!" The floating thing suddenly greeted loudly and cheerfully.

"…Japanese?" was Klou's initial reaction.

_The accent is Chinese too, but… not as bad as that girl's…_

"Well, I moved between Japan and China quite a bit, so I picked up a bit of each…"

"What…are you…?" Klou nervously mumbled as he slid away further from the yellow…floaty…wingy…thing.

"Well, for one, I'm not a toy, I don't have batteries, and I don't have a switch!"

"AI…?"

"What do you mean, AI?" The yellow thing asked curiously.

"Artificial Intelligence…"

"Hmm… I guess you could say I'm artificial in some respects…"

"What …are you, again?"

"Oh yeah! I'm Keroberos! Beast of the Seal! But you can just call me Kero-chan for now, since it's my nickname!" Kero finally identified itself.

"Beast of the Seal…?"

Kero nodded, calling for the book to right itself so it stood on its base, "You see I guard this book, so that the Sakura Cards inside don't do anything bad while I-"

The Beast of the Seal decided to finally look at that empty space where the Cards were.

"…WHERE ARE THE CARDS!?"

"…I'm not sure… I just found looked at this Card and read it aloud…"

"Don't tell me… is it … Windy?"

"…If I don't tell you, how can I let you know it is Windy?"

"Well… WHAT?! YOU READ WINDY? Not again…"

Klou made a face at that, "Again… you mean this… happened before? How well do you guard cards…?"

"Hey! I was just taking a little doze, alright?"

"For how long…"

"Hmm… I guess a century or so!"

_I should have known._

"Hey, where are we anyways?" Kero asked.

"We're in Tomoeda… Far East District."

"Really! Wow I haven't been back here in-"

Kero looked out the window. It's jaw it the ground.

"Where… are we?"

"I told you, Tomoeda…"

"AGH! IT LOOKS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!"

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It took an hour of history refresher for Kero to catch up with what he missed.

"So that's what's happened since then…" Kero nodded as he sat atop the pink book.

"Kero… what were those Cards?"

The Beast of the Seal coughed for a few seconds to straighten out his throat before explaining, "You see, each of those Cards were originally made by my first master, and they all contain considerable power. The book and the cards were eventually passed down to a girl named Sakura Kinomoto, and she turned the Clow Cards into the Sakura Cards, and she was my last master. Each of those cards are alive… and if the seal is broken and they're all on the loose, a catastrophe might occur…"

Klou sighed, "You mean to say I have single-handedly set the world down a course of destruction…"

"Well, we've got to do something about it!"

"We…?"

"Well, yeah! You're coming with me!"

"Must I…? I've already cause enough trouble… I'm just a student trying to pay rent…"

"And Sakura was just a girl! If you managed to open that book, you must have some magic prowess, right?"

"Suppose... but still…"

Kero was completely ignoring Klou's muttering pleas by now, "Right! What's your name!"

"Klou… Klou Reeve…"

"Really? Interesting… anyways, Klou, stand right over there!"

Klou blinked and obliged, shuffling over a few paces back.

"Here…?"

"Yeah! Here we go…"

And Klou's apartment disappeared, leaving only him, a glowing Kero and the book situated about a glowing circle composed of a star flanked by a sun and moon.

"Key of the Seal… Someone wishes a contract with you… a boy, named Klou… Key, grant him your powers… RELEASE!"

Klou was struck by rays of light as something that had appeared from the book floated in front of him, shining brightly.

"Come on Klou! Grab it!"

Klou groaned with effort, but reached out for the object in front of him, until his hands had grasped a small rod, a star within a circle on one end, flanked by fat, curving wings.

"All right! Cardcaptor time!"

And the light cleared away, forcing Klou to realize the magnitude of his task.

"…It's pink…"

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Klou sighed as he exited the bathroom in only sweat pants and a wife beater, revealing his thin frame.

"Kero… I can't do it… it's… pink… among other… issues."

"What wrong with pink? Sakura liked it."

"You said Sakura was a girl…"

"That's completely not part of the issue! You've got awesome powers right? What kinda boy wouldn't want awesome powers?"

"One that doesn't want it to be related to the end of the world… or pink staffs… I feel like a magical girl… and I already pose as a model…"

"Man! This bed is really soft!"

"Kero…"

"Klou, who was it that scattered the cards?"

"Who was it that was sleeping for over a century…?"

The two looked at each other distastefully for several seconds.

Sounds of frightened car horns outside. The two of them looked outside the window.

"Klou! Look!"

Klou did, and Kero pointed. A de-grav car was bouncing through the air, smashing onto the tops of other vehicles.

"A programming error in the vehicle…?" Klou pondered.

"No! It's one of the Sakura Cards!"

"It can do that?"

"It has to be the Jump Card! Klou, you know what to do!"

"To do…?"

"Come on! The first job for this era's Cardcaptor!"

"Guh… right…"

A few moments later, Klou Reeve had thrown his jump suit on again, and dashed out into the dark skies to Tomoeda. He immediately landed on car and leapt off onto a nearby walkway, ignoring the impressed and surprised crowds as they either watched him, or the jumping car in the streets alongside below him.

"Wow! You're really good, Klou!" Kero couldn't help but notice as Klou leapt off another railing and started grinding down a metal pole that supported one of many other walkways.

"Thanks… I practiced…"

In a single bound, Klou had latched himself onto the crazily rising and falling car, barely managing to hold on between each successive hurdle.

"Quick! You have to transform the Key!"

"Do I have to recite…?" Klou muttered distastefully.

"What's the matter?"

"I'll sound like a magical girl… along with a pink staff…"

"Just do it!"

Klou stuffed his hand into the breast pocket of his suit, and pulled free the minute artifact.

"…Key that hides the power of the stars… show your true form before me… I, Klou, command you under our contract… release…"

The small star shaped device quickly lengthened into its full form. Kero still seemed irked.

"You could have used a little more enthusiasm."

"Now what…?"

"You have to find a way to get Jump out of this car!"

"Right… why must is be pink…"

Klou let go on the next jump, letting the momentum toss him through the air. In his descent, he slammed onto the hood on the front.

"Looks empty… sorry owner… but I'll have to wreck your car…"

Sliding off the curved hood of the vehicle, Klou went until he was holding on with both hands as he looked at the car's underneath. Reaching out, Klou's gloved hand pulled at the first installed cable he saw. He guessed right.

In moments, the car began to fall downwards, completely bereft of power in its de-grav units.

Kero chased after the fast falling Cardcaptor, who fluttered in the wind.

"Are you crazy! You're going to crash."

"No I'm not… tell me when Jump's coming out…"

As if on cue, a pink form suddenly emerged from the vehicle and bounded into the sky.

"Jump's left the car!"

"Right…"

Reaching forward again, Klou slammed the cable back into its rightful place and the car stopped into an emergency float. At that, the boy flipped back onto the car's hood, looking upwards at the disappearing being.

"Jump's getting away!" Kero's floating form worriedly warned.

"No it won't… Wind, become a binding chain… Windy…" Klou quietly commanded, star sigils appearing under his feet as he threw out his only card and thrust out his with his staff.

The star twirled inside the circle and the wings grew as it pointed towards the floating card. The card exploded in a gust of green energy as the form of an elegant woman fly ever upwards after Jump. Winding its cool form over and over, Windy wrapped itself around the Jump, until the pair of them began to fall back towards Klou.

He was ready as he pointed the rod upwards, "Return to the guise you were meant to be in… Sakura Card…"

The two forms impaled themselves upon Klou's outstretched limb, exploding into colored, cloudy masses that eventually solidified into two cards. One of a woman, the other of a rabbit with wings. Both floated into his hand.

"Yosh… systems go…"

Klou collapsed onto the top of the vacant car. Kero floated by, "Alright! You did it!"

"Must I keep doing this…? I thought I was going to die…"

"Of course! You're the Cardcaptor now! Besides, this should make for a good experience for you!"

"I'm about to be a Cardcaptor questioned by the police…" Klou muttered as he heard sirens behind him.

"That's easy! You can use Jump now!"

"Huh?"

"Try using it like you did with Windy!"

Klou did. Wings forms at his ankles.

"So I just jump-"

Klou's merest hop sent him several meters into the air.

Life suddenly became invigorating.

"I'm… really jumping…" Klou could only mutter to himself in surprise, as he continued to push harder, bounding higher and higher off the walls of Tomoeda's buildings, until he was easily near the top of city, over looking it all.

Kero came near, chuckling, "See! Don't you like it?"

"It… doesn't mean anything…"

"Still, there's some fifty odd cards left. We've got a long job ahead of us, Cardcaptor Klou!"

"That… sounds awkward…"

-

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_And that, was the beginning of the rest of my life as the new Master of the Cards._

_ -_

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A/N: A pilot for a story that may or may not exist yet, just for the heck of it.


End file.
